Twiddling my thumbs

Hi all

I have an after-work meeting tonight so I'll be stuck in Lincoln until after 8. I might get some painting or writing done when I get home, but my main hope is to get some photos taken tomorrow.

Here are some random thoughts and comments.

The river finally dried out quite nicely with just a few cracks in the varnish. A second coat has patched most of these and I'll continue brushing on coats for another week or so before I get the flocking done. The watermill has been slightly amended, but painting the windows, frames and few other bits in white, but it is still largely in an untreated wood + stone finish. I'm a bit concerned that it lacks an AWI "vibe" but I'll get it in situ before making any rash decisions. The hot weather was good for drying, but a few cracks have appeared around the MDF board I polyfilla'd into place for the mill to sit on. These will need filling and blending in to the existing paintwork. That is the problem with terrain - filler and PVA continue to dry out for a long time after they look like they have finished. This is one reason why boards may start flat by slowly warp over time.

My civilian figures are coming along nicely and it is good to feel that I haven't lost the knack of painting figures despite quite a long gap since my last major burst (and than was mainly 6mm naps). I have used a mixture of layered highlighting and washes - some of us were there way before GW, but their stuff certaily helps. The hardest thing has been the eyes, which I normally leave out, but some of the civilians really need these doing. I have just about got a satisfactory result but (as is often the case) these tend to be the weakest part of the figure.

I'm holding back on buying any AWI figures at the moment, while I work on the terrain and civilians and see if any of the plastics manufacturers turn their attention to "God's Own Wargaming Period (TM)".

For Fathers' Day this year I actually got a useful present - the Perry AWI 4-wheeled munitions cart. Now the civvies are nearly done, I'll start gluing this together. With the smaller carts I assembled the cart & horse on the base along with the polyfilla & sand BEFORE undercoating and painting. Previously I have painted the carts & horses separately and then based them. The new method creates a few issues around reaching various parts of the model, but overall I think the finish is better and I have more confidence that the glue will hold everything together. I'll probably use Araldite 90-second epoxy as this will be less brittle than Superglue and seems pretty good stuff if my repair of some of the kids' toys is anything to go by. Personally I hate gluing wheels on carts so anything that does this quickly and with a strong bond gets my vote! The cart comes with two figures, one leading the horses and one sat on the pile of high explosives. I think that chap #2 may be diverted and end up sat outside the Inn talking to the two serving wenches.

Terrain projects left to do in this "batch":
1. Finish the river & watermill
2. Get round to doing three boards (might have one further river section, or a swamp and I need one or two with some craggy outcrops/hills)
3. Plan a "Breed's Hill" type of thing
4. Scratch build a meeting house and a belfry
5. Make more trees

None of these are too major apart from another river. Rivers are messy to carve out and involve a LOT of waiting for glue, filler and varnish to dry out. Then again they do look good...

cheers